The disgraced communist party leader Bo Xilai has been accused of tapping the
phones of China’s president Hu Jintao and other senior CCP figures.

According to internal party reports, Mr Bo mounted a widespread wiretapping operation to monitor the activities of his fellow politicians in an effort to boost his own position within the party.

Mr Bo was sacked from his post as CCP chief of the booming southwestern city of Chongqing in March. His dizzying descent from power has previously been attributed to his links to the dead British consultant Neil Heywood, who is alleged to have been murdered by Mr Bo’s wife Gu Kailai after secretive business deals went sour.

Anonymous CCP sources said that Mr Bo tapped the phones at the state guesthouse in Chongqing where senior officials stay on visits to the city. The eavesdropping emerged last August, after it was discovered that President Hu’s conversations with a visiting minister were being recorded.

The wiretapping is believed to have begun several years ago, when Mr Bo ordered his one-time ally and the former Chongqing Police Chief Wang Lijun to set up a sophisticated surveillance operation. The highly ambitious Mr Bo was keen to ascertain how he was regarded in the party and desperate for information he could use against his enemies.

But it seems the wiretapping has backfired spectacularly. By listening in to the private conversations of President Hu, Mr Bo was directly challenging the Party leadership and so provided his opponents with the ammunition needed to end his political career.

The revelations help explain why Mr Bo was removed from his post just at a time when he was being touted for a position on the all-powerful nine man Politburo committee that acts as China’s cabinet.

Until now, Mr Bo’s spectacular downfall has been seen as a direct result of his ties to Mr Heywood, a businessman who worked closely with Mr Bo’s wife Gu Kailai. The old Harrovian is believed to have been involved in helping Mrs Gu hide the cash obtained from two decades of corrupt business transactions in overseas bank accounts.

Mr Heywood was discovered dead in a Chongqing hotel room last November. Wang Lijun is said to have told US diplomats that Mrs Gu poisoned Mr Heywood with cyanide after he threatened to reveal the extent of her illegal business dealings.